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Monday, 13 January 2014

#CountryKids Stick Man Trail at Whinlatter #weloveforests

Like many families we love the Stick Man story by Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler so when I heard that the Forestry Commission was setting up Stick Man trails I really wanted to try them out. We were sent a goody bag including the book and information on the trails but we hadn't been able to go until this weekend due to lack of time and bad weather. So on Saturday I got the children into warm clothing and we made the hour drive up to Whinlatter as it was a beautiful day.

There is an activity leaflet with the trail and it is so well signposted the children could lead the way:

Some parts of the route were visible from further away and the children raced away to try and be first to get there:

At each part there was a different activity for them to do:

This was checking tree buds:

Next up was tree whispering:

There were also hand on activities such as building stick towers:

My daughter read and followed the instructions:

Little brother just piled them high:

Then he helped his sister by finding sticks. This one he reckoned made him Thorin Oakenshield:

They spent quite a lot of time to make a tower this high:

Further along the trail there was a den building challenge:

This turned out to be a 3 person job:

After a lot of hard work this was our finished den:

Along the path the children had to write down various uses for wood such as medicines. The next activity was more relaxing as it was twig pictures:

Don't think our picture was too exciting!

One of my favourite bits was the poetry section, though the children weren't interested:

As they could see the Wild Play area and were keen to have a go on their favourite section:

Back in the centre they could find materials for making their very own Stick Man:

It looked like plenty of people had had a go:

We probably spent about and 1.5-2 hours out on the trail and all had a fun time. It was a good way to get them to explore and learn more about wood and nature. The trail is only open until January 31st if you are interested in going along!